ARTICLES ABOUT COLA BY DATE - PAGE 2

About 300 people turned out at Allentown's Coca-Cola Park on Wednesday for the city's first-ever audiovisual expo, an event connecting professional buyers and sellers. "There's really no other show like this is the Lehigh Valley," said Destiny Heimbecker, marketing director for Allentown-based Vistacom, which sponsored the 2014 Tech Expo. The annual conference and exhibition had been held at King's College in Wilkes-Barre the previous six years. "Attendance had been dying off," said Heimbecker, adding that 125 participants had registered for the free event - about double that of the previous year.

As they begin their seventh season on Monday, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs seem determined to remain as innovative and flexible as possible. And it starts with the starting time for Monday's home opener. It's a 5:05 p.m. start for the game against the Buffalo Bisons, the first time the team is starting the home portion of its schedule in the twilight. That means that under normal circumstances, fans coming out to the game should still be able to get in nine innings and be home in plenty of time for the opening tip of the UConn-Kentucky national title game and before the temperatures dip into the freezer.

More than 40 community groups, colleges and companies will present science-related exhibits during the free Lehigh Valley Science Festival on Saturday. The event runs 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown. It's presented by Da Vinci Science Center of Allentown. The science festival was last held in 2012, and attracted more than 2,000 people. It will include an opening ceremony and qualifying events for the Lehigh Valley Health Network's 2014 Robotic Simulation Olympics.

About two weeks ago, the playing field was under 18-plus inches of snow. Saturday, there was still a good 10 inches of the wintry white stuff sitting on Lehigh Valley's Field of Dreams, known as Coca-Cola Park. "The last time I saw the grass was the second or third week of January," Ryan Hills, the Allentown park's second-year director of field operations (head groundskeeper), said Saturday during the Triple-A IronPigs' annual National Pig Day celebration that kicked off single-game ticket sales.

Coca-Cola Co's global sales volumes rose less than the company expected in the fourth quarter and fell in North America, sending its shares down as much as 4 percent. Coke, like rival PepsiCo Inc., has been battling declining soda sales in developed markets, especially the United States, as people reach for healthier options. Both have responded by pushing juices, teas, water and other non-carbonated beverages and investing more in marketing. Coke bought a 10 percent stake in Keurig coffee maker Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. earlier this month, and will help develop a cold-beverage dispenser that it hopes will boost at-home consumption of fizzy drinks.

Is the Coca-Cola Park game-day experience better than that at Citizens Bank Park? One web site believes so. StadiumJourney.com, self-described on its site as a "web venture with the goal to become a world-class community resource for sports fans, built around optimizing the experience of attending live sporting events," rates the Coca-Cola Park experience 98 t h in its ranking of the top 100 stadium and arena experiences in the U.S....

Lehigh County voters will decide Tuesday whether they want up-or-down approval over taxpayer borrowing for private projects like Coca-Cola Park, home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. On the Election Day ballot is a countywide referendum requiring their approval any time the county issues debt for such private interests. A yes vote would amend the county charter with that as a new rule. Such projects typically are large but uncommon. They incur significant debt but don't affect the county's core functions, like repairing infrastructure.

The face was familiar and so was the place, but rather than patrolling center field as he did for parts of five seasons with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Rich Thompson was on the concourse level overlooking the field on Tuesday night at Coca-Cola Park. “I've actually never been out here before,” Thompson said as he roamed around during the Triple-A National Championship Game. “I've never experienced the game from this side before. It's a great place to watch a game.” Thompson was one of the few among the crowd 9,602 who had a rooting interest in the battle between the Durham Bulls and the Omaha Storm Chasers.

It wasn't until late last week, with Durham in the middle of the International League playoffs, that Mitch Lukevics, Tampa Bay's minor league director, realized that the Triple-A championship game would be played in Allentown. "I called Charlie [Montoyo, the Bulls manager] and told him he better win or else," the 1971 Liberty High School graduate said with a chuckle Monday afternoon while watching the Rays' top affiliate take batting practice at Coca-Cola Park. Durham and Omaha, which took different routes to reach the playoffs but then showed similar domination to win the IL and Pacific Coast League titles, square off Tuesday night in the ninth annual Triple-A championship showdown before a crowd expected to top 9,000 and a national television audience.

The IronPigs announced Wednesday that next Monday's team workouts for the Gildan Triple-A Championship Game at Coca-Cola Park will be open to the public at no charge. Gates will open 15 minutes prior to the International League champion's 90-minute workout at 1:30 p.m., followed by the Pacific Coast League titlist at 3 p.m. Photographs will be permitted but autograph requests will be at the discretion of the players and teams involved. The championship game will be played Tuesday night, with first pitch scheduled for 7:08 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on the NBC Sports Network.